According to a report from the Working Poor Families Project, the number of working poor families has increased by 200,000 between 2010 and 2011. The report cites such issues as low wage, temporary work, and workers that hold a series of such jobs, and a lack of education--the gap between people who didn't complete high school and those who completed a bachelor's degree is staggering--to prepare people for higher paying jobs.
In 2011, the mean annual earnings for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were $69,387, compared with $20,936 among those who dropped out of high school (p.4).Other effects noted by the report includes the very high cost of housing for a working poor family, as well as the cost of transportation to work and the cost of child care.
In 2011, 61 percent of low-income working families had a high housing cost burden—defined as spending more than 33 percent of household income on housing costs such as mortgage or rent payments, utilities, and other expenses. For working families below the official poverty threshold, 81 percent had high housing cost burdens.The report also includes a breakdown by state for working poor families in the thousands.
